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"The Constitution does not empower the federal government to confine a person solely because of asserted 'sexual dangerousness' when the Government need not allege (let alone prove) that this 'dangerousness' violates any federal law."

"The Constitution does not empower the federal government to confine a person solely because of asserted 'sexual dangerousness' when the Government need not allege (let alone prove) that this 'dangerousness' violates any federal law." A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has today declared unconstitutional 18 U.S.C. sec. 4248, a federal statute intended to allow the federal government to place in indefinite civil commitment "sexually dangerous" persons who have completed serving their federal prison sentences. You can access today's ruling at this link.

In support of its ruling that the statute is unconstitutional, today's opinion states:

At its core, the Government's argument attempts to "pile inference upon inference" so as to "convert congressional authority under the Commerce Clause to a general police power of the sort retained by the States." Lopez, 514 U.S. at 567. Were we to accept the Government's logic, Congress could authorize the civil commitment of a person on a showing that he posed a general risk of any sexually violent conduct, even though not all, or even most, of this potential conduct violated federal law. This argument would convert the federal government's limited power to criminalize narrow forms of sexual violence into the general power to regulate all sexual violence, including acts which violate no criminal statute. Congressional power does not reach so far.

The Fourth Circuit's opinion states that the court is the first federal appellate court to address the constitutionality of this statute, a question that has "divided trial courts across the nation."

Update: The Associated Press reports that "Court strikes down federal sex offender law."

Full post as published by How Appealing on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).